Daddy stuff and being a healthy inspiration for my kids

muscle up

The most notable change this month is that I’m taking a break from judo. Both my girls’ sleep is particularly bad at the moment, between them they are up at 1-3 times every night and it’s starting to take its toll. By the time I’m supposed to leave for judo training on a Friday night I’m pretty much ready for bed so rather than go anyway, not be 100% on the mat and be extra exhausted the next day (part of the oh so previous weekend!), I’m going to stay away for a few weeks until things settle down. I’ll train at home on Fridays instead, but can manage the time, volume etc much better there.

Other than that it’s all roughly the same. I’m now using the 20kg kettlebell for jerks which actually feels easier than the 16kg as the extra weight helps me keep my arm relaxed and get more drive from my legs.

I’ve also switched snatches for long cycle jerks. The progress I had with my snatch technique last month disappeared so rather than bang my head against a wall I’m switching to a lift I know I can do. I’m not training to compete in kettlebell lifting so the lifts are largely irrelevant. The point is just to lift the weight many times without putting it down.

The gymnastic ring work is still treating me well so I’ll stick at it for a while longer. I’m adjusting the volume and intensity depending on what stage of the jerk progression I’m at.

Right now I’ve dialled right back to the start and am working dips twice a week. Once I am doing them with forearms off of the rings I will switch to one day of dips and another of muscle ups.

I’m thinking this will work fine until it comes to RTO dip/muscle up integration – that is very hard and may need another rethink. At that point I may take the two skills in different directions: dips go RTO, MU go for minimal forward lean or ring routines.

This is a summary of the progression I plan to work through for ring dips and muscle ups.

It’s a good example of how bodyweight exercises can progress and become more challenging without simply adding weight.

I’ll be working on them twice a week.

Current

Session 1

Goals

Muscle up

Increase ROM – currently can’t do reps without starting with bent arms

Increase sets/reps to 3 x 5

No momentum

Session 2

Goals

Ring dip

No arm contact on rings, rings held turned out (palms slightly forward)

Keep hollow position during reps

Increase sets/reps to 3 x 5

Turning out the rings on dips makes them much more difficult. Adding the hollow position even more so.

I was able to do these dips for 3 x 4 on the first session. Adding an extra rep per set shouldn’t take too long. Once there I’ll keep the sets/reps static and focus keeping each rep slow and controlled.

The muscle ups started at 3 x 3 so there’s a bit more work to do there – my wrists are the limiting factor more then anything else.

Stage 2

Session 1

Goals

Muscle up

Integrate RTO/hollow dip into muscle up

Remove any momentum required to do this initially

Increase sets/reps to 3 x 5

Session 2

Goals

Ring dip

Maintain ability to do higher reps (3 x 5) with RTO and hollow while building strength in MU

All reps at slow, controlled tempo

Turning out the rings and adding the hollow will make the muscle ups much more challenging. My reps will definitely drop so I’ll keep the dips as they are to maintain the ability to do at least 5 reps.

I expect the transition to be where I’ll need to build most strength. If progress is slow I’ll start dropping into the transition in my dip reps as well to work that section of the movement more often.

Stage 3

Session 1

Goals

Muscle up

Maintain ability to do 3 x 5 with hollow and RTO dip

All reps at slow, controlled tempo

Session 2

Goals

Muscle up with embedded static holds

Work ability to use MU to move into static holds

MU to l-sit – come into l-sit as dip rather than from support, work up to reps

MU, lower to front lever – work up to reps (i.e. front lever pull to MU)

MU, roll to back lever from top of transition (no dip) – reduce momentum in back roll, difficulty in back lever

In this stage the RTO/hollow muscle ups go into maintenance. I will continue to progress the exercise by starting to play with different entrances and exits.

I’m planning to do this rather than work full ring routines simply because I’ll be able to work the individual skills harder this way.

And after that?

I’m not sure – full ring routines
would be an obvious direction to go in. Chances are I will be a bit dipped out and want to introduce a different pressing movement.

I’ve introduced one arm push up progressions to add variety to my pressing work. My elbows and wrists were feeling the strain from doing muscle ups every day. I’m progressing the exercise by doing them with my hand on a raised surface, as I get to 8 sets of 3 reps I find a lower surface and start again. In theory I can continue like this until I’m doing them on the floor – I just need to find enough progressively lower surfaces around the house!

I’ve added in band pull aparts and rows to even out my pulling motions. The bands are a new toy and are great for working the rhomboids, lower traps etc – all the muscles that get lazy and weak while I sit at my desk.

Deadlifts are added in place of the Monday pistol session. My weekend run tends to be on a Sunday and pistols the day after are often unpleasant, and not in good way. The deadlifts are still fairly unpleasantly, but in a much better way!

I’ve not changed a great deal from my August workouts. I still have some focus on the muscle up to strengthen the movement.

The main changes are the reintroduction of handstands (I will get there!) and adding in a run/parkour session on Saturday. I want make the most of the ok-ish weather while it lasts and time was a bit tight to squeeze it in on a Friday night.

The muscle up is a great skill to work towards. It combines upper body pushing and pulling to move your body from below an object to on top.

However, there is more to a muscle up than just a pull up with a dip on top. The other parts are what make it difficult, but also worth the time and effort.

There are three main components to completeing this skill on rings:

Pull up and dip ability

The false grip

The transition

You are unlikely to get a muscle up on your first attempt, but by training each component individually you can work up to the skill in a systematic way. This is how I approached getting my own first muscle up.

Pull up and dip abilityI would recommend being able to do ten pull ups and dips before starting further muscle up training.

This is because, although a muscle up only involves one pull up and one dip, they are not the hardest part of the skill.

As your numbers increase a single pull up/dip will become easier, allowing you to focus on the more challenging parts of the skill.

The false gripWhen doing a pull up using a standard grip the wrist is below the rings, but for a dip we need them to be on top. To perform a muscle up with this grip would require a massive amount of kipping.

A decent false grip is essential to doing a strict muscle up as it allows you to perform the pull up with wrists already above the rings, making the transition to dip far simpler (although not easy!).

To get the false grip you wrap your hand over the top so that your wrist on the pinky side is flush with the rings.

False grip

This will feel very weird to start with and your pull up numbers will probably fall dramatically, if you can do one at all.

Instead, start with false grip rows to get used to it and then move on to pull ups from there. The strength should come fairly quickly.

The transitionOnce your false grip pull ups are getting strong you are part of the way there, but there is still some extra pulling/pressing to do to move into the bottom part of a dip.

This is the transition and it is the hardest part of the skill simply because most people will not have previously built strength in the angles required.

This article by Christopher Sommer gives two great tactics for strengthening the transition. I credit these tactics for me getting my muscle up in two months (I already had the pull up and dip numbers).

It is pretty simple (but again, not easy!):

For dips, start to lower into the transition at the bottom of each rep. It doesn’t matter if the range of motion is small to start with. The important thing is that you are able to press back out on each rep. Over time the ROM will increase until the bottom of your dip reps are in the top-of-pull-up position.

The tactic for pull ups is similar. As you perform your sets pull further into the top of each rep. Range of motion isn’t important, eventually you will end up above the rings, which is just a dip away from being a full muscle up.

Top tip – focus on keeping elbows close to your ribs when moving into the transition – it’ll make the movement stronger and safer.

Exercise planHere’s one way of progressively working on each component of the skill to build up to a full muscle up.

I’ve only listed the parts related to the muscle up, the rest of your routine is up to you. I would limit the amount of additional upper body work though.

In each phase try to add sets/reps each week until you can do the ones listed. Once you get those numbers move onto the next phase. Always stay well away from failure and leave at least a day between workouts.

Phase 1 – pull up and dip strengthNo magic here. Work both exercises 2-3 times a week, building up to 3 sets of 8 reps.

If all goes to plan, one of the pull up-transition reps in phase 4 will eventually put you above the rings, which means you can do a muscle up.

Ok, got it. What next?

My pull up into transition came before the dip. So I can go up fine (with a little swing of the legs), but not lower all of the way. So, for me, there are two things to work on: lower under control and eliminate kipping.

I will concentrate on the lowering portion of full muscle ups while continuing to work the dip-transition in isolation. Lowering under control will pave the way for multiple muscle up reps and also integrating them into longer ring routines.

The dip-transition will help with kipping as it builds strength in the middle part of the movement. I will also slow down my reps as much as possible and focus on keeping my legs still.